The "Gürsel Sönmez Awards" established in 2006 in memory of the late Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences member and valued scientist Gürsel Sönmez will be given for the 10th time this year.  

A remembrance event will be held for Gürsel Sönmez on Wednesday, June 8, 2016 at 1.40 pm in FENS G032, followed by the announcement of this year's Award winners and poster presentations. All members of the Sabancı University community are invited.

The Dr. Gürsel Sönmez Award Committee set up every year by the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences received 131 submissions to date and handed 30 awards as a result of meticulous evaluation. 

The winners of the 2016 Gürsel Sönmez Awards will receive their prizes during the commencement ceremony.

About Gürsel Sönmez and the Awards

Dr. Gürsel Sönmez joined the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences in September 2004. Shortly thereafter, on January 16, 2006, he was involved in a fatal traffic accident. His short academic career was nevertheless fruitful and significant, and he made great contributions to the sciences.

"Dr. Gürsel Sönmez Research Awards" were established by the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences to keep his legacy alive and remind students about his achievements to motivate them.  The Award entails prizes for one or more graduate students based on their research efforts and achievements to date. Submissions are open to both master's and doctorate students. Candidates may only apply for their year of graduation. Candidates may nominate themselves or be nominated by a member of Sabancı University faculty.

Students who will take the ELAE on June 9th, 2016:

1. Students who have studied in the School of Languages during 2015-16 academic year and who have submitted on an online survey which was sent to them by mail.  (A petition is not required.) 
2. Inactive students who still hold exam rights & who have given in a petition to take the ELAE on June 9 th, 2016
3. Grad students

Location and Times:

WRITING & LISTENING            09.30 - 12:00 

READING                                   13:00 - 14:40

LOCATION                                 FMAN 1099

DATE                                          June 9th,2016

For the identification check to be done in time, we ask that students who will take the exam be at the exam hall half an hour before the exam starts and that they bring some official identification which includes their photograph (such as a passport, identification card, driver’s license) with them.

Students should also make sure that they bring a pencil, eraser and any other necessary pieces of equipment with them. 

Students are asked not to bring their mobile phones into the exam hall. Students are kindly reminded that if they bring their mobile phones, they will be collected.

The results of the ELAE will be announced on the external web page of Sabanci University on Tuesday, June 14 at 7pm.

Detailed information about the ELAE and a sample of the exam is available at the link below. We recommend that all students who will take the exam check this link.

http://sl.sabanciuniv.edu/students/elae

We wish you every success in the exam.

School of Languages

The students certifying that they have passed one of the national and/or  international foreign language examinations at a level determined by the university are entitled to begin undergraduate programs.

The following international exams and minimum scores will exempt students from the SU Foundation Development Year. 

According to the latest instruction letter for Foreign Language Exam Equivalencies issued by the Centre for Selection and Placement of Students in order for an exam to be accepted as equivalent, it must have taken place in a building owned by a state university.

Furthermore, according to an announcement on February 26th 2016, by the Centre for Selection and Placement of Students, certificates from exams which took place before the date of the announcement (February 26^th, 2016) will be considered as meeting requirements. If the application was made before the date of the announcement (February 26^th, 2016) and the exam took place within 30 days of the announcement, the certificate will also be considered as meeting requirements.

School of Languages Directorate

Siemens Art Prize “Borders Orbits 18” competition has concluded. The Prize was given to Visual Arts and Visual Communications Design, Masters students Didem Erbaş and Eren Sulamacı with their work "Tortu".

Selection Comitte meetings took place between 13th-15th of May 2016, with participation of Derya Yücel, Murat Germen, Mürteza Fidan, Petrit Halilaj ve T. Melih Görgün, as a result of evaluation three applicant awarded with the prize 10.000TL each and the works of 13 artist will be exhibited in the exhibition ”Borders Orbits 18” in December 2016 -January 2017.

The Purple Certificate Program supported by the Sabancı Foundation in association with Sabancı University and the Ministry of Education held children's games workshops in partnership with the Bilgi University Children's Studies Unit during the Children's Biennial in Istanbul.

Children played a board game called "Neden Olmasın? - Why Not?" during the two-day event to gain more insight and understanding into gender equality. Games were directed by volunteer students from Sabancı and Bilgi Universities.

40 schoolchildren took part in the game project in the Biennial. The children wrapped up their impressions of the game in pictures.

SThe Gender Certificate Program initiated by the Sabancı University Gender and Women's Studies Forum and Istanbul Bilgi University Sociology and Teaching Studies Center (SEÇBİR) to improve gender equality in education concluded.

The certification ceremony for the program implemented as part of the Purple Certificate Program supported by the Sabancı Foundation was held at the Karaköy Minerva Palas on Saturday, May 21, 2016. 31 students from 9 faculties of education in Istanbul and Bursa attended the program and 28 attendees were awarded certificates. 

Most attendees of the Gender Certificate Program were 3rd- and 4th-year students of education faculties. The program was be delivered by academics and experts on a variety of subjects including sociology, psychology, law, social policy, literature and media.

On May 23, 2016, Istanbul Policy Center (IPC), in cooperation with American University and Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), organized a one-day event in Istanbul entitled “Rising Powers and Peacebuilding: Innovative Approaches to Preventing Conflict and Sustaining Peace.”

The full day workshop disseminated the findings from a two-year research project on “New Actors and Innovative Approaches to Peacebuilding,” co-chaired by American University’s School of International Service and NUPI, with the support from the Carnegie Corporation in New York and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The research was carried out by IPC from Turkey, the African Center for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD) from South Africa, the United Services Institution (USI) from India, and Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Indonesia. 

The event commenced with welcoming remarks by Fuat Keyman (IPC) and Charles T. Call (American University). Project partners presented their respective countries’ innovative approaches to peacebuilding, sustaining peace, and conflict prevention. They shed light on how rising powers differ from traditional donors through their increased use of humanitarian aid, development assistance, unconditional commitment of resources, national ownership, and inclusivity as key methods and principles in peacebuilding and conflict prevention. Distinguished representatives from host countries such as Afghanistan, Somali, Burundi, and South Sudan shared their views on the impact of rising powers/humanitarian interventions in their respective countries. High-level government officials from donor countries were also present to elaborate on the development strategies of their countries and their contributions to peacebuilding. The experts used case studies such as Somalia and Afghanistan to further illustrate how rising powers apply these concepts in conflict-affected countries. 

Donor state perspectives were presented by high-level government officials and dignitaries-- including Jayant Prasad, Director General of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analysis; Ambassador Olgan Bekar from the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Somalia; Ambassador Kani Torun, Member of the Turkish Grand National Assembly and Former Ambassador to Mogadishu; Homayra Ludin Etemadi, Political Secretary to H.E. Mr Hamid Karzai, Former President of Afghanistan; and Sébastien Ntahuga, Former Advisor to President Pierre Buyoya of Burundi on the Arusha Peace Process-- as well as public intellectuals from both rising powers and the case-study countries. 

The workshop finished with closing remarks by Sarah Cliffe, Director of the Center on International Cooperation at New York University.

Milan-based publisher Skira printed a comprehensive monograph of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences member Murat Germen. Established in 1928, Skira is one of the most prestigious artistic publishers in the world, and their monograph on Murat Germen explores the boundaries of the artist's experimental and documentary work that culminates in different imageries in photographic narrative. Murat Germen’s book is the first comprehensive monograph on a Turkish artist published by Skira. Edited by Necmi Sönmez, the book includes contributions by leading international curators such as Stephan Berg and Kerstin Stremmel as well as a piece by Necmi Sönmez himself.

The 100-page book contains almost sixty color and black-and-white photographs by Germen from his internationally acclaimed series Muta-morphosis and Facsimile that focus on major cities of the world becoming identical to each other driven by economic motives. Murat Germen's nearly encyclopedic approach on major cities interpret the planning dynamics of a wide range of settlements from Chicago to Singapore, Cairo and Iceland based on the various strata observed in the cities. 

Although an impressive photograph of Hong Kong is featured on the cover of Murat Germen’s book, the artist's favorite subject through his lens is Istanbul. Germen seeks to create alternative Istanbul cityscapes in both “Muta-morphosis” and “Facsimile”, paying homage to the characteristics of the city that are set to disappear as a result of constant change.

2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Laureate Professor Aziz Sancar gave a lecture titled "The mechanistic fundamentals of DNA repair" at Sabancı University on Thursday, May 26, 2016. Professor Sancar told Sabancı University students about his 35-year work on how cells repair damaged DNAs and preserve genetic information that won him the 2015 Nobel Prize. 

Professor Sancar, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with his work on mapping how cells repair damaged DNAs and preserve genetic information, met with Sabancı University students and faculty on the Sabancı University campus.In an event hosted by Sabancı University President Professor Nihat Berker, Sancar gave a lecture titled “The mechanistic fundamentals of DNA repair”. In his lighthearted lecture, Professor Sancar shared his life's work that brought him the Nobel Prize with students. The conference hall was packed.

Turkish-American scientist Aziz Sancar is a Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of North Carolina, and his work contributes to the development of new cancer treatments as well.

About Professor Sancar

Sancar was born as the seventh of eight siblings of a family who were ethnic Turks but spoke Arabic in the Savur township of Mardin.  Although both his parents were illiterate, Sancar says "They knew about the importance of education and did everything they could so each of their children could be educated." Sancar completed his primary education in Mardin. He was a good student and a successful goalkeeper in the school football team, as a result of which he was called to Junior National Football Team tryouts.

Sancar started the Istanbul Medical School in 1963, graduated in 1969, and was a general practitioner in the Savur dispensary for two years. He then completed a PhD on Molecular Biology at the University of Texas in Dallas. He became an associate professor in Yale University with a dissertation on DNA repair. He continued his studies on DNA repair, cell sequences, cancer treatment and biological clock. He has authored 415 scientific articles and 33 books.

Aziz Sancar is married to Gwen Boles Sancar, who is similarly a professor of biochemistry. The Sancars have established the Aziz & Gwen Sancar Foundation to help Turkish students in the US and develop Turkish-American relationships. The Foundation operates a student guesthouse called "Carolina Turkish Home" in North Carolina, US.

The first welcoming to Aziz Sancar by our alumni Gamze Günal Sadık (Molecular Biology,Genetics and Bioengineering, Master, 2009) and her baby Ahmet Can Sadık.

A needle-like device designed by MSc in Materials Science and Engineering 2009 graduate Canan Dağdeviren detects broken links in the brain that causes diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and enables the targeted delivery of drugs.

Visiting Bursa for a program, Harvard University Junior Fellow Dr. Dağdeviren spoke to an Anatolian Agency reporter, saying: "Patients have to take their medicine via the intravenous or oral routes. These substances do travel to the brain, but they harm other parts of the body as well. Recovery takes a long time. It took me three months to design a needle, but it works.  We tried it on chimpanzees and got results. It was a very difficult experiment."

Dağdeviren said that her efforts enable the detection of broken links in the brain.

Drugs are then administered directly to these broken links by a needle-like device.  Dağdeviren says: "What I did was to change the design. The device must be about 10 centimeters long and exceptionally thin, because we were experimenting on live animals. We can't cause them any suffering."

Dağdeviren says that her greatest influence when designing the device was the tallest building in the world, and that she worked with an architect to design the device.

"We will be working on 4-dimensional devices"

Dağdeviren explained that she was dedicated to designing devices that treat preexisting conditions.  Dağdeviren said her next project would take her to MIT where her work will be inspired by her aunt, who passed away 5 months ago due to breast cancer.

Saying that she would experiment with similar devices on the body, especially the breast region, Dağdeviren continued:

"My work began on a single dimension. When I was at Hacettepe University, I started working on fibers. I then built devices using these single-dimensional materials at Sabancı University. But this wasn't enough. I started working with a professor in America. I built two-dimensional devices that could be worn on the body. Now I'm working on three dimensions and a needle that can penetrate the body. Next, I will be working on four dimensions at MIT and you will hear about them soon. In the future, any drugs you take will contain minute circuits. We will be able to track the drug you take. We will be able to see where it goes and what it does. From one perspective, medicine today is much like a set of pajamas. You can put on your mom's, dad's or even sister's pajamas, but they won't fit comfortably. My work, on the other hand, is towards a personalized form of medicine that will fit you like a bespoke jacket. In the future, the wealth of individuals will be noticed by the number of electronic devices they wear on their bodies. This will make detecting any changes in your body a breeze."